When the Alembic's bar manager Daniel Hyatt gets a fit of inspiration, he madly scribbles on a blackboard in his room.

"I like to dork out and read food blogs and menus (online at home). It inspires me to think about how you can play with flavor and food sensations," he says.

A glance at the Alembic's drinks list reveals just a few of Hyatt's culinary-inspired creations: pineapple "ravioli," root beer bitters and candied kumquat. Not surprisingly, Hyatt says that most of his ideas come from restaurants, not bars.

Hyatt's been pushing the boundaries of mixology ever since he worked behind the bar at the innovative Winterland, where chef Vernon Morales and pastry chef Boris Portnoy turned him on to ingredients like shiso, hibiscus and white cardamom. He was also exposed to the avant-garde techniques that produce culinary curlicues like foams and semi-solid purees, many of which have earned a permanent spot in his arsenal.

Under the mahogany at the Alembic, you can find whipped cream chargers, a vacuum sealer and a counter full of guar gum, maltodextrin, calcium chloride and sodium citrate. "With that kind of stuff you could make anything," Hyatt says.

Though Hyatt is well versed in the techniques of molecular mixology, his cocktails at the Alembic employ them judiciously.

"(The menu) is rooted in the classics, which is something I wasn't as concerned with at Winterland."

The drinks menu has two sides - literally. The "Canon," which faithfully resurrects rye as the base spirit in New Orleans standards like the Sazerac and the Vieux Carre, and Hyatt's "New School" creations, including the Vow of Silence, made with Wild Turkey rye, Benedictine and creme de griotte.

A few of these new-guard cocktails are simply Hyatt's spin on lost classics. With credit to the 21 Club's famous Southside cocktail, the Southern Exposure injects celery juice into the Southside's basic blend of gin, lime juice and mint.

But other creations are unlike anything we've ever tasted. The Vice Grip, a blend of Araku coffee rum liqueur, Brachetto d'Acqui wine and porter beer, looks like a mini-pint of Guinness. Hyatt blends the liquors, then caps it off with a half-inch of foam with a handheld cappuccino frother. Spicy pineapple "ravioli" are suspended in the Mighty Quinn's mixture of bourbon and dry vermouth. Hyatt's co-workers Josey Packard's and Thomas Waugh's innovative concoctions also appear on the Alembic's menu.

But Hyatt's shaking and stirring shenanigans aren't all fun and games. "We have a lot of stuff to play with at (the Alembic), obviously, but the drinks on the menu all showcase a technique, spice, or some other particular twist."

In the end, Hyatt wants his cocktails to be enjoyed.

"I am interested in making an emulsion that tastes good that sits on a cocktail that tastes good and have it look pretty. It's a fine line between something really witty and a college party Jell-O shot."